Are we moving back to "separate but equal" in East Ramapo?
Local community leaders were asked for their input. One of those to respond was Spring Valley NAACP President Willie Trotman. The following video shows that the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is indeed alive:
On Monday, April 19, 800-1000 people came out to rally against budget cuts and school closings. Many brought homemade signs with slogans such as "All Children are Equal", "It's a Dark Day for East Ramapo", "School Children are not Cattle", and "Don't Sell our Public Schools". It was a fantastic example of the kind of solidarity that empowers and heals. Great Job! to the organizers and all that helped make the rally a success! If every person who came to the rally would bring 10 people to the polls on May 11, we will live up to our motto: "The Power of Ten".
This message from new library trustee Denet Alexandre: Dear friends, You did it. The budget passed overwhelmingly with 1427 yes votes versus 298 nos. I overcame my opponent with 1204 votes vs. 530. This is a moral victory for the community and our children. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.
Our leadership is strong. Our task is clear. I heard a survivor of the earthquake in Haiti say "if we each do a little, we will get the job done." The steadfastness of the Haitian people in the face of unimaginable adversity is inspiring. Can we be any less committed here in East Ramapo?
I ask you to read the following message from our volunteer coordinator, and RESPOND:
We conducted the first volunteer orientation session on Thursday March 25 at the RCC SV campus. It was well attended with committed residents from all over East Ramapo, and several from outside of Ramapo. The purpose of this session was to: prepare the canvassers with valid specific messages we want them to communicate to each resident; leave our candidates campaign material; collect contact information from them; provide registration and voting guidelines to them. All of the attendees were very enthusiastic and driven to get out the voters to help our public school candidates get elected. Our methodology for this door-to-door campaign is to canvass one or two areas of the school district at a time, and complete them all over the next 4 to 5 weeks. Although we have over 30 canvassers thus far, that is not nearly enough.
There are 49,000 registered voters in the ERCSD. About 10,000 of these are what we call the ‘block vote’, and they have elected the majority of the members on the school board because they all come out to vote. Only 4,500 of the 40,000 non-block residents voted in last years’ school board election! Its obvious that we have the voting numbers to elect the public representatives, but we are faced with enormous apathy from our residents. We must change that with face-to-face contact, and follow that up with email and telephone communications. We need your help with this initial door-to-door contact with all of the registered and non-registered voters.
Jobs are going to be lost; classes are going to be cut; building sold; our children short changed; and our home values will continue to decline if we, the majority don’t fix this situation.
If this appeal is not enough to energize you to help, then god bless you anyway. If it is, then please contact me or any one of the East Ramapo Stakeholders, and let’s arrange to get you started helping us to take back our schools.
Thanks,
Micheal
RESPONSES MAY BE SENT TO: steve@poweroften.us or using the volunteer button on the webpage: www.poweroften.us